Q: When did you first actually become involved with someone who had Ebola? Do you remember?

MGNF: I was among the nurses, the first group of nurses to care for the first people, the patient that came out of the ELWA Hospital. We received the first patient. ELWA Hospital was the only hospital in Mesurado [Montserrado] that was prepared to receive Ebola patients. We were trained: nurses were trained, the hygienists were trained. We were prepared medically to receive our Ebola patients, and we did receive the first Ebola patient.

Q: So what did you learn in the training? What does it mean to be trained?

MGNF: For the first time we were asked to be trained, people said, “No, I’m not going to be trained, I’m not going to be a part, because that’s dangerous. That disease kills. I’m not going to be a part. I’m going to go and sit home, so I don’t need to be trained.” So there were people who were leaving the facility, and some never wanted to be trained. But we stood up, management stood and said, “Everyone must be trained, because this is not an individual business; it’s nationwide. So you must be trained. If you are not trained, you will be sacked.” So people came down. And in the training we learned how to receive, how to dress. They call it donning, where you are dressing.

I was on the team that counseled the relatives of victims. And then, unfortunately my daughter was also victimized for Ebola. She is married and has two children, twins. Her husband’s family, the entire family, all seventeen persons, came down with Ebola. Nine survived. I think eight died. And my daughter was taken to the Ebola unit that I worked in.

I received her, and I ushered her in. I received her husband. I ushered him in. I received the mom, the mother-in-law, the sister-in-law, the aunt-in-law, and I put them in. And then she looked at me and said, “Mom, I’m going to die.” I said, “You’re not going to die.” She said, “But you’re not going to leave me here. You’re going to stay with me.” And she held me. And I was crying in the goggles when I was leaving. It was the highest trauma that I ever experienced, not even compared to childbirth, because I saw my daughter and her husband and the family, and then I had the kids to be quarantined. They were just two years old at that time, just one year six months, a boy and a girl. She had twins. It was traumatizing. I worked in the Ebola unit from the beginning of Ebola to the end, when Liberia was announced Ebola-free. I washed my hands, and I said, “Thank God.”

When it comes to nursing, we were traumatized, but no one did anything with the trauma that the nurses faced. That’s why I ask you why are you coming now. Because we were traumatized. You saw people—bodies. You see a nurse. You see a midwife. You see a doctor. And you see your neighbor. You see your daughter. And there after the whole Ebola crisis, no one cared to appreciate the nurses that work in the unit. There isn’t even a list. Where is the list of the nurses that worked in the Ebola unit? You’re supposed to have a document for that, that tomorrow you will tell my grandchildren that your grandmother worked in an Ebola unit to save lives. That’s not so. That’s why—

Q: It was never done.

MGNF: I’m only speaking to you because I fear God. That’s all. Even if you can’t do it, let me be recognized. That’s what they’re supposed to do. People are hurt. People are hurt. People were traumatized. My husband said, “I don’t want you in the house.” I was not in the house. I was put out, because I worked in the Ebola unit. He said I shouldn’t come so I can’t infect him, and I was sleeping in the hospital. I slept in the hospital for a year.

Q: Has there been any work to help nurses absorb this trauma?

MGNF: I was prepared before going into the Ebola unit, to care for Ebola patients. I was psychologically prepared, so I wasn’t much traumatized as compared to others. But it was traumatic. You are sweating up. You are soaked with cold, with tears, with sweat, because it is hot in there. And you stay in there for two hours, establishing the IV line, making sure, even performing deliveries. Yes, we performed delivery in the Ebola unit. I did a delivery there.

I entered the nursing field to have compassion, to have empathy. That’s what kept me there, not because of where I work, how much I make. That’s why. But I thank God. Thanks be to the almighty God who saved me, and saved my daughter and her husband, that I had to go and treat, gave her medication, and she looked in my eyes and said, “Mom, are you leaving me to go out? Are you going to come back? When?” I said, “I’m going to change, and I will come back to you. Please.” And she would run, grab me, and my friends would say, “Please, let her [phonetic] go.” And then, when I came home, I said, “Jesus, I just want her to survive, God. Just do it for me that she survives.” She survived.

You were asking the question what should be done. We need to put people in our shoes. You know what I mean? Let me feel the same way you feel. Let me not see you as a white woman, she came from down here; she’s just a black woman, she’s just nobody. But let me see you, and see Jesus in you. But people are not acting like that. If you know why you became a nurse, nothing will separate you. I’m not afraid of any disease. Even if I died, I die serving God through serving humanity. So I was prepared. I said, if I should die, yes, yeah I die. [laughs] I [would have] died because I’m serving somebody. I’m doing what God has called me to do. So if He wants me to die, well, that’s it.

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Marthalyne G.N. Freeman was interviewed for Frontline Nurses by Jennifer Dohrn on August 15, 2019 in Monrovia, Liberia.

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